Dirty as it Gets -by James Legare

What is the word I am looking for? -Oh yes.
FAKE
It’s the miasma we don’t dare
discuss.
Dirty Talkin’ Old Guy
charms me with his charisma
How does he do it?
Red Roses in his
Tenderloin Room
from a Dive Bar
to the curb
A legend in his own mind
He may lack my company
But that don’t keep him
Down
…and dirty

He may be Dirty in thought
Bankrupt in ethics
and wholly unsuitable
swerve and stoop, unshaven
a bristle beard

An un-returned look
and active disregard
I may scream –
Please ignore me!
As the street fills with fog.

Overflowing with Red Roses
In actual fact, alone
Grime on the window
reveals all
And enters with a stupor
as he does

The night falls
Lime Green Neon lights
A room abloom
And bloody abandon
Really, what a schmuck!
From the gutter
to the door

Not a man for company
Nothing closes
like a door
especially noiselessly
As he enters

An alley street
in Old Commerce
with moist lips
before a cocktail
And I tell you –
Stories, and storied laughs

Emboldened and wetter
Dive In
A neon jungle
White mists of fog
A lashing tongue
Who flails me.

The ripple of sheets
appeared in the mirror
on the other side of the room
opposite the bed
like a White Ocean
of moiling delight
under his naked body
He saw him there
then there was the cat
a silence consumed him
his words lost, for once

the day fully vanished
harsh light, no longer
lingered, descending bank of White
But a floor light, Standing by the window
with Red shade, Lamp,
Shade, and all
The room a Rose
And Neon from the window –
as one looks out
Now steady, now blinking, now ready

Front, Frank and frontal
Sky like coffee, Now as Never

Steady

Just as black, ruffled sheets
A bed can hold two, subtle, then not
after one approaches, framed, Windowsill
a sign in mid-air,
Street-side View
Reckles Red, floral Cream

The tough city’s a Dirty Place
Grime on the street
that type of thing

On soft paws, he approaches
with whiskers askew
the padding of an old carpet
provides cover

First approach the bed
then dart for a curtain-less window
A fire escape beckons